Immediate Acknowledgement of Resent Network Data Packets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional networked storage systems face inefficiencies when handling missing data packets, as they often resend entire payloads instead of just the missing packets, leading to unnecessary network bandwidth and resource consumption.
Innovation Solution
Implementing immediate acknowledgement of resent network data packets, where the receiver node acknowledges receipt of retransmitted packets before processing them, allowing the sender's transmit queue to be cleared more quickly and reducing unnecessary retransmissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the receiver node processes data packets in sequence, then data integrity is maintained, but the sender's transmit queue cannot be cleared quickly enough, increasing latency
Solution Approach 1:
The receiver node performs preliminary actions by acknowledging receipt of retransmitted packets immediately upon arrival, before fully processing them. This allows the sender to clear its transmit queue quickly while the receiver maintains data integrity through selective processing and validation mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the packet processing function into distinct phases: immediate acknowledgement of receipt (for throughput optimization) and subsequent processing/validation (for data integrity). This segmentation allows both requirements to be satisfied independently and concurrently.
2Reliability
If the sender resends entire payloads when packets are lost, then reliability is maintained, but network bandwidth and processing resources are wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements segmentation at the packet level, where individual packets or groups of packets can be acknowledged independently. This allows the sender to resend only lost packets rather than entire payloads, significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The receiver node provides selective feedback through immediate acknowledgements of received packets and negative acknowledgements of lost packets. This feedback mechanism enables the sender to identify and resend only the problematic packets, optimizing both reliability and bandwidth efficiency.
3Reliability
If the receiver node buffers all received packets before processing, then data integrity is ensured, but the transmit queue of the sender cannot be cleared quickly, reducing throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The receiver node performs preliminary acknowledgement actions immediately when packets arrive, before buffering and processing them. This allows the sender to clear its transmit queue quickly (improving throughput) while the receiver maintains data integrity through subsequent validation and processing stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic packet handling where the receiver can immediately acknowledge packets for throughput optimization while maintaining the flexibility to buffer and process them later for data integrity. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt between throughput and reliability modes as needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for performing immediate acknowledgement (ACK) of resent network data packets are provided. In one example, an immediate ACK of a resent packet may be sent by a receiver node before processing of the resent packet, thereby allowing the sender's Tx queue to be cleared more quickly and allow clients to continue sending requests to the sender without interruption. Additionally, in an ideal situation, the immediate ACK of a given resent data packet may avoid the sender retransmitting one or more of the data packets subsequent to the missing packet. In one example, in order to mitigate the more frequent ACKs transmitted by the receiver, ACKs may be piggybacked on other packets (e.g., heartbeat packets and/or data packets) that would otherwise be sent from the receiver to the sender.